David Olusoga OBE in conversation with Olutayo Adesina

Join us for a very special inaugural event to welcome Professor of History, Olutayo Adesina, to The University of Manchester.

Olutayo was among the eight recipients of the 2023/2024 British Academy Global Professorship awards, which seek to foster collaboration between international researchers and universities in the UK on new and cutting-edge research projects. A distinguished Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL), Professor Adesina was recognised for the British Academy Awards with his project, “The Town And Gown Interface: Ibadan And The Decolonisation of Social Knowledge in the 20th Century”. The research will be conducted at The University of Manchester over the next four years.

Olutayo will be in conversation with British-Nigerian historian David Olusoga OBE, who is a BAFTA winning film-maker, author and Professor of Public History at The University of Manchester. Together they will discuss the importance of recent research into black history and culture, its relation to the changing world we live in, and the respective place of history in Nigeria and the UK.

The conversation will also reflect on the course of Olutayo’s academic career and on the work he will undertake, over the next four years, as the recipient of the prestigious and coveted British Academy Global Professorship.

An audience Q&A will follow the discussion.

Olutayo Charles Adesina is a professor of history, and the current British Academy Global Professor affiliated with the Department of History, University of Manchester. A distinguished Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL), the apex organisation of humanistic scholars in Nigeria, Prof Adesina has taught for many years at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Prof Adesina’s work was selected for the British Academy Award for his research proposal entitled 'The Town and Gown Interface: Ibadan and the Decolonisation of Social Knowledge in the 20th Century.' The project offers an innovative study of the politics of knowledge production in colonial and postcolonial Africa.

Prior to his current award, Prof. Adesina’s scholarship has been internationally recognized through fellowships, awards, and professional offices. In 1994, he was a Grantee of the United States Information Agency at the Boston College; Fellow, Atlantic History Seminar, Charles Warren Center, Harvard University (1998); Fellow, Salzburg Seminar, Austria (2003); Visiting Professor at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia(2004 & 2013); African Visiting Fellow, Rhodes Chair of Race Relations, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University (2004/2005); Visiting Research Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2009); and, Fellow, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin, May-July 2023.

Prof. Adesina is the current Editor of Africa Review, an interdisciplinary academic journal of the African Studies Association of India published by Brill, The Netherlands.

David Olusoga OBE is a British author, historian, presenter and BAFTA-winning film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at The University of Manchester and was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to history and community integration. He specialises in the British Empire and how we experience its lasting effects in modern society. David has presented historical television programmes on the BBC. His television credits include Civilisations, Black and British, Our NHS: A Hidden History, A House Through Time and the BAFTA award-winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners.

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We want to make the event a positive experience for all participants. If you have particular access needs, please let us know in advance by providing details of any accessibility needs when registering for your ticket, or by emailing us at [email protected]

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Manchester Museum, Oxford Road, Manchester, United Kingdom